Moving on

In September 2015 we welcomed in these columns Sri Lanka’s decision to cosponsor the US-backed United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution over the country’s human rights record as being a mark of the statesmanlike acumen the public had come to expect from the Yahapalana Government and its leadership. Less than two years later, the powers-that-be have made a farce out of those unrealistically high standards the people of this country once bestowed upon the ruling coalition, but it’s heartening to know that, at least on the international front, it has managed to save some face.

On 23 March this year, the team of diplomats representing Sri Lanka headed by Foreign Minister Mangala Samaraweera in Geneva scored another much needed diplomatic win for the country. Despite those with vested interests framing it as a treacherous act of international brown-nosing - what with a former head of state going as far as to call it a great betrayal - the fact of the matter is that Sri Lanka was badly in need of a timeout and the Government managed to secure that reprieve - for the lack of a better word - and more without sacrificing national pride.

In this newspaper’s extensive coverage of the UNHRC sessions, we reported how the Sri Lanka delegation fought hard to get the two-year extension while battling NGOs and diaspora elements sympathetic to the LTTE who, truth be told, will settle for nothing less than blood. While some activists might understandably raise issue with how this doesn’t really translate into any real action on Sri Lankan soil with regard to transitional justice and/or reconciliation, this - along with the proposed Truth-seeking Commission - is a start, to say the least. If the Government can also get its act together and get the ball rolling on the proposed new Constitution, we may finally have a lasting solution in sight. It’s a pity that the UNP and the SLFP can’t seem to agree on how to go about it.

The need of the hour then is to quit making excuses and come up with a strategy to not just meet our international obligations (the final decision, in fact, rests with Sri Lanka as a sovereign nation that by all rights can and should manage its own affairs), but to finally put an end to a costly conflict that has set Sri Lanka back by decades. The nitty-gritties of that solution can be discussed and hairs can be split ad nauseam, but time is running out. Even without the unrealistic deadlines imposed on us by holier-than-thou foreign powers, Sri Lanka can no longer afford to be embroiled in its own internal squabble. 

While admittedly it is hard for a self-respecting country to be lectured to by those with far worse human rights records than ours, current geopolitical realities demand that we do - and, in all honesty, we stand to lose little by at least pretending to listen to what they say. The real solution must come from within. The onus, then, is on the parties in power to put their heads together - with assistance from the more reasonable parties in the Opposition - to lead the way.